


FitzSimmons Family Secret

by AgentManatee



Series: Alya FitzSimmons Fall Prompts [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alya Fitzsimmons - Freeform, Child's POV, Fall prompts, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic, Mystery, Pregnancy (Implied), alya fitz & kora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26642269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentManatee/pseuds/AgentManatee
Summary: Alya knows her parents have a secret and has to use the spy skills she learned from her aunts and uncles to figure out what.This satisfies #18 Mystery of love-the-stars-too-fondly's Fall Prompts. Alya is 5 years old.Alya knows Mama is hiding her illness because she doesn’t want to worry her, but she has eyes, you know. She’s barely eating and keeps getting so sick Alya has found her asleep in the bathroom. It must be very bad. But Da doesn’t seem worried. He smiles softly as he holds Mama’s hair back and just seems so happy. And that makes absolutely no sense. Da can’t hide anything from her. He never has before so how could he start now? Something is seriously wrong with her parents, Alya is determined to get to the bottom of it.
Relationships: Alya Fitz & Daniel Sousa, Alya Fitz & Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons, Alya Fitz & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Series: Alya FitzSimmons Fall Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937365
Comments: 16
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

Alya knows Mama is hiding her illness because she doesn’t want to worry her, but she has eyes, you know. She’s barely eating and keeps getting so sick Alya has found her asleep in the bathroom. It must be very bad. But Da doesn’t seem worried. He smiles softly as he holds Mama’s hair back and just seems so happy. And that makes absolutely no sense. Da can’t hide anything from her. He never has before so how could he start now? Something is seriously wrong with her parents, Alya is determined to get to the bottom of it.

Thankfully, Alya has aunts and uncles who are spies, plus a Nai Nai Mel and Grandy Phil. They’ve taught her some spies skills…well, not to their knowledge, Alya is just super observant; NaNa Fitz says it’s her superpower! And Mama and Da taught her the scientific method as a bonus. So if anyone can figure out what’s going on and how to save them, it’s her. 

First she should start with listing observations of what’s strange about her parents:  
1\. Her parents are acting odd  
2\. Mama’s keeps getting sick  
3\. Mama falls asleep in the bathroom  
4\. Da was worried the first time he found Mama in the loo  
5\. That was the only time he was super-worried when Mama threw up sick  
6\. He has been thoroughly calm since  
7\. Mama is good at putting on her brave face  
8\. Da, however, is not. He wears his heart on his sleeves  
9\. Mama is not eating  
10\. Mama is very tired  
11\. Both Mama and Da have had an extra bounce in their step lately  
12\. Da keeps bringing Mama tea and reading to her while she drinks it…or asks Alya to if there is something he has to do  
13\. Something is very very wrong

There. That’s a good starting point. Now what? She needs to talk to someone for advice. But what if whatever is happening to her parents is happening to them, too? This situation is too close to some of the movies she watches with Tio Mack and Tia Yoyo for comfort. In fact, it very well could be that kind of thing going on right now. Body snatchers, Alya shutters. She can’t let them know that she’s onto them, so she need to find someone she knows hasn’t been affected. Thankfully, Aunt Daisy gave her a special secret comm with advanced security that she programmed herself and is currently off-world. Aunt Daisy will know what to make of this.

Alya grabs her comm and Kitty the Monkey, runs to her hiding place under Da’s workbench in the garden shed, and video calls Zephyr 3. “Alya, what time is it there?” Kora asks as she picks up the call.

“No time for pleasantries, Aunt Kora. I need to talk to your sister stat. We should include Uncle Daniel, too. And you should stay. I need all the help I can get.”

“Daisy, Daniel, we have a call from our favorite caller!” Kora shouts and winks at Daisy, “She’s being very professional so it must be important.”

Daisy and Daniel barrel into the control room at Kora’s call, Daniel a little too enthusiastically as he crashes into the doorframe. “Hey, Squirt! What’s going on?” Daisy inquires. At the same time Daniel asks, “Why are you hiding? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Mama and Da. They’re not acting right. Mama’s sick and Da’s not worried whatsoever.”

“You’re right. That is strange, little star,” Daisy validates. Daniel and Kora share a look over her shoulders. 

“I think some strange parasite has taken over them and Mama’s body is fighting it off. What if I can’t get them back?” Alya can’t hide her unease.

Kora leans forward. “That would be a very serious problem. Why do you think something stole their bodies? Why wouldn’t they try to take over you, too?” she reasons.

“Well,” Alya suddenly realizes how absurd her theory is. She completely forgot about the scientific method! That can be fixed. She still hasn’t ruled out parasites after all. “Right now, that’s my hypothesis. It makes the most sense.” 

“That still doesn’t explain why nothing’s come after you,” Daniel points out. “Assuming the hypothesis is correct.”

“Well, maybe it can only infect grown ups. My developing body and brain are too hard to capture.”

“Good point, Alya,” Daisy smiles. “You said that only your mom is getting sick? Fitz isn’t getting sick?” 

“Or shown any symptoms of infection?” Daniel adds.

Alya pauses before answering, “Umm….well….yes. Only Mama has been sick. Da hasn’t been at all. Not even a little green.” Alya realizes that her Da hasn’t shown any symptoms and surely he would have at some point if a parasite had infected him. 

“So only Jemma has shown symptoms of illness. I think it’s safe to say we’re not dealing with any sort of body snatcher here.” Daisy suggests. Alya sighs in relief at that. She’s so glad she thought to call her family on Zephyr 3. They’re the best.

“Thank you, Aunts and Uncle. I knew you could help. But what’s wrong with Mama and why doesn’t Da seem concerned?”

“I think that’s a question for your parents, little star. Let me know what they tell you.” Alya didn’t miss the significant look that Daisy gave Kora and Daniel. What’s that about? Do they know something? Why wouldn’t they just tell her? What is going on here exactly?

“Ok. I will. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Send your parents our love,” Daisy’s face blinks away from the screen.

Alya stays curled in her spot, cuddling Kitty, while she reflects on her call. Did Aunt Daisy know more than she let on? She's relieved some sort of monsters aren't taking over her parents. But she's more confused than before. She has so many more questions now. And Aunt Daisy says she should take them to Mama and Da. But what if they don't want to answer her? What if they're waiting for results before they tell her what's going on? What if it's something very serious? Alya is anxious to find out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya finds a clue in an unexpected place. She finds a way to further her investigation without raising her parents suspicions (or so she thinks).
> 
> Alya wakes up, still in her hidey hole, hearing Mama calling for her. She wonders when she fell asleep when a poster tube with her name in Da’s handwriting catches her eye. That’s strange; it’s not Christmas or almost her birthday. Why would Da be hiding a gift for her? He’s always admonishing their family for sending her so many presents. She shrugs, oh well, might as well see what it is.

Alya wakes up, still in her hidey hole, hearing Mama calling for her. She wonders when she fell asleep when a poster tube with her name in Da’s handwriting catches her eye. That’s strange; it’s not Christmas or almost her birthday. Why would Da be hiding a gift for her? He’s always admonishing their family for sending her so many presents. She shrugs, oh well, might as well see what it is.

She opens the tube and pulls out a poster of space. Alya recognizes the image as a nebula from a book on space her parents read to her but can’t quite place it. She reflects on what Daisy told her before she fell asleep, _that’s a question for your parents_. Did Da leave this here for her to find? He always knows where to find her. What is he trying to tell her? She’ll have to research what nebula this is and where in space it is. Maybe that will give some insight in what’s wrong with Mama. Alya doesn’t understand what possible connection she will make, but she knows she will. She’s too smart and determined not to.

Speaking of Da always knowing where to find her, “Alya?” Alya quickly takes a picture of the poster and places the poster back where she found it. “There you are, little monkey. You had us worried when you weren’t in your bed. Didn’t you hear Jemma calling? – Found her, Jemma!”

“I’m sorry, Da. I fell asleep in here…looking for a tool I needed to borrow,” she improvised. She congratulates herself for not raising suspicion while her father gives her an amused look.

“You know you have to ask first.”

“Er…I know but you were busy, and I know what’s not safe to touch. You taught me so well.” Good, butter him up. He doesn’t suspect a thing.

“Anyway, breakfast is ready and you still need to get ready for school. Come on. We both know how your mum hates running late.” Fitz chases Alya out of the room.

\--------

Alya is grateful that it’s library day at school. She can look into the nebula on the space poster away from her parents’ watchful eye, and the poster inspired her to make nebula the topic for her science class project. She can easily run an image search to find her poster and finally make some headway in her investigation without worrying about her teacher’s disapproval.  
There it is, the Pelican Nebula.

> The Pelican Nebula is an emission nebula located near the bright star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Named for its resemblance to a pelican, the nebula is associated with the neighbouring North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and is one of several notable nebulae found in the area of the Northern Cross. It is an active star forming region with a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. (source: https://www.constellation-guide.com/pelican-nebula)

Cygnus! That’s where Enoch’s from. He’s the first uncle she ever met. He was even there when she was born! But Mama said he died. Alya misses Enoch and is sad that she doesn’t get to see him anymore. She doesn’t know if she believes Uncle Mack when he says that he is watching them from heaven but she does agree with Grandy Phil that he’s alive in their hearts and memories. Is Mama dying? But then Da would be sad, and he would not be able to hide being sad from that. “So that can’t be it,” Alya breathes a sigh in relief. A classmate glances curiously at Alya but doesn’t ask her to repeat herself because they know that’s part of her process so best to let her be.

Alya already knows that new stars are born in nebula because her Mama told her when they go star watching, but she doesn’t think her friends at school know. So she excitedly tells her teacher that her project will be on the birth of stars. Her parents share a smug and pleased look when she tells them.

\--------

When Alya gets home, she quickly runs to grab a book on constellations off the bookshelf. She's surprised that an old index card fell out of the book. Mama must have marked a page the last time she looked at the book, Alya thinks as she picks up the card. On the card is a diagram of metaphase in mitosis. Alya notes that aster microtubules, kinetochores, and sister chromatids were labeled. Why would Mama have a card about biology at hand when reading about space? Why would she have that card out at all? That’s just weird. What does cell division have to do with stars? First Mama keeps getting sick, then she’s pulling old flash cards out of storage. What is happening to Mama?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Laying out the clues for Alya meant needing to add a chapter. Her parents know her so well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fitz gives Alya a new book of bedtime stories, Alya sleeps on the mystery and finishes her project. FitzSimmons give her presents with a special dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is. The final chapter of my first multichapter fic!

“I think it’s time for someone’s bath and bedtime story,” Jemma’s voice interrupts Alya’s musings on cell division and nebula. She just cannot figure out what that card was doing in that book. Even her favorite dinner of Mama’s spaghetti bolognese couldn’t remove her from her thoughts.

“Are you sure? We just finished dinner? Can’t I stay up longer? Please!” Alya pleaded as she does every night. She never wants to miss anything.

“Oh no. We are not getting into that again, little monkey,” Fitz gently teased. “Go with your mum for your bath and then I have a special story picked out for tonight. It’s one we haven’t read before.”

“I suppose a new bedtime story is worth going to bed early,” Alya supposed.

Mama sang to and laughed with Alya the whole bath! That was too fun to help her relax for bedtime. Da will have his work cut out for him with his bedtime story. “Da! Where’s my new book?” Alya says to Fitz who is waiting for her with his hands behind his back.

“Hmm, what’s this behind my back? It’s definitely not new pajamas,” Fitz jokes as he brandishes the book, _Little Critter’s Family Treasury_ by Mercer Mayer. 

Alya grins widely, “A new critter book?! Yay!”

“Yep, and not just any Little Critter book, but a book collection. We have a week’s worth of bedtime stories here.”

“We can’t read the whole thing tonight?” Alya pouts.

“You know better. And if you don’t push for it, you may even get another new bedtime story book when we finish.”

“I guess,” she huffs. She knows her Da is true to his word and will follow through, so she supposes she can cooperate for now.

“Great! Come on, let’s get comfortable before we start,” Fitz says while tucking Alya under her covers and laying next to her for a good cuddle. “We’ll start with _Just Me and My Mom_. We went to the city just me and…” Alya imagined herself joining Mama on a trip to the city as she drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~

If Alya didn’t know any better, she would think that Mama and Da were distracting her from her mission with the new book. Of course, nothing could deter her from discovering the cause of her parents’ strange behavior. If anything, the book had added to the mystery. It was a book about family after all. Although, how it connected to nebula and cell division was beyond Alya. Family, stars, and microbiology aren’t exactly overlapping subjects; the only thing they have in common is they fit into her parents’ interests. And what would they have to do with Mama getting so sick all the time? 

She’ll have to stew over this later. She really needs to get to work on her science project after all. Perhaps her research on nebula can guide her to the mysterious connection. Nana Fitz always says that returning to a problem with a fresh mind can find the solution, so Alya puts all of her focus on her schoolwork and spending time with Mama and Da.

_Some emission nebulae are the home to new stars. One could say stars are born in such nebulae. After all, astronomers call them star nurseries. In my presentation, we will be seeing how stars are made in the Pelican nebula, which is in the constellation of Cygnus…._ Alya begins her presentation. She intends to teach her classmate’s how stars forming presents such beautiful colors in captured photos. Mama proves to be a valuable resource in her project and Da builds her a specialized telescope to observe the skies in her research. Even her family on the Zephyr 3 send her up-close and personal photos of nebula for her presentation. She sends them a thank you card to Uncle Daniel’s delight.

In the meantime, Da continues to read a story from her new book a night, which reminds Alya of her amazing family every night. She’s grateful that she has the _best_ family. But she’s still lost in how to put this puzzle her parents laid out for her together. Are they trying to tell her something? Or are they distracting her from her mother’s illness? Mama is still getting sick and can no longer hide it from her, even with Da taking such good care of her. She’s considering coming out with it that she knows something’s wrong and demanding answers. The only thing preventing that is her pride. She doesn’t want to burden or upset her parents when they are clearly going through something. So she waits.

~~~~~

No one is surprised when Alya’s presentation of nebula wins the school’s science fair and makes her eligible for the country’s science fair for her age group. If she wins that, she’ll get to meet Princess Shuri, Dr. Jane Foster, and Tony Stark at the international fair as a representative of Scotland. She figures she has that in the bag. And not just because Da has offered to help her with simulations of a star’s birth. It’s solid research and advanced for her age group. She _is_ the offspring of both Dr. Dr. Jemma Simmons and Dr. Leopold Fitz afterall.

Mama has promised her famous pancakes to celebrate. She even lays out special toppings including an assortment of spiced nuts and seeds which will taste famously with the maple syrup. “Other than delicious food to eat, what other functions do seeds have in nature?” Jemma prompts Alya after she digs in with glee.

At the same time, Fitz smacks his forehead, “I forgot your present. Let me grab it. I’ll be right back. Save some for me!”

“Better hurry then, Da. These pancakes are to scrumptious to ignore,” Alya grins before taking a big bite. She returns her attention to Mama’s question. “When seeds germinate, they grow into a new plant. They’re like their mama and da’s plants babies.”

“What a wonderful way to put it, darling,” Jemma looks up as Fitz returns with wrapped packages. “I have a feeling you already know what one of these is, but before we open it, can you tell me what specifically happens for plants or any multicellular organism to grow. At a microscopic level.”

Alya thinks for a moment before declaring, “Cell division! New cells have to grow and specialize.” She feels relief with this odd line of questioning from her mother. She feels ever so closer to finding the answers she’s been seeking these past few weeks.

“That’s right, Monkey,” Fitz interrupts Jemma’s pop quiz, “Now how about we let the champion open her presents.”

Alya points at the cylindrical present. “I know that’s a new space poster. I didn’t mean to find it,” she apologizes. “And that one looks like it could be a book. Is it a new _Little Critters_ book?”

“Open it and see.”

“It is!” Alya reads the title, “ _The New Baby_ ,” and everything clicks. “Stars are born in nebula. Cell division is an important part of gestation. Seeds are like plant eggs…” she mutters to herself. “Mama’s going to have a baby,” she looks to her grinning parents for confirmation, and she feels ecstatic. “I’m going to be a big sister! This is the best day ever!” Mama and Da laugh and silently agree as she rushes to hug them. She insists on speaking to her Mama’s tummy, “I don’t know if you can hear me yet -- I’ll have to research it – but I’ll tell you everyday until you’re born if Mama will let me,” she watches Jemma give a small nod, “I’m going to be the best big sister a kid could want. You can come to me for everything, and I will always watch out for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, I should probably explain the Tony Stark mention:  
> 1\. I headcanon Agents of Shield and the other MCTU shows as being in the timeline that Thanos and his minions abandoned in Endgame, which explains why the snap wasn't addressed. No Thanos after 2014, no snap. Everyone wins!  
> 2\. Kevin Feige recently dismissed the shows as not part of the MCU going so far as to change the timeline for the movies (He claims the second Thor movie is set before Iron Man 3, which only serves to screw AoS's timeline, which is petty nonsense I elect to ignore and incredibly disrespectful to the fans, crew, writers, actors, etc of the shows. So you-know-what him). I view this as a good thing because we can also ignore his poor decision-making, like killing Tony and Natasha off. If you don't headcanon the above, then Gamora is still present in the timeline and is alive and well and in no danger from Thanos. Again, everyone wins!
> 
> I also had to include shout-outs to Mercer Mayer's Little Critters series. Those books were some of my favorites as a child. 
> 
> The final lines started to bring tears to my eyes because I'm a big baby at heart.

**Author's Note:**

> TBH, I'm a little stuck here and I work this weekend, so it will probably be a few days before I post the second chapter. This was supposed to be a one-shot.


End file.
